Duality
by Isaac A. Drake
Summary: Five years and a grueling war after the destruction of Starkiller Base a redeemed Ben Solo travels the galaxy to earn that redemption and a mission to the Hapes Cluster gets him entangled in intrigue, politics, power, and the Force.


Author's Note: Blasted the Kylo Ren spotify playlist while writing this and it helped get me into the flow so much. Subsequently I'm going to be titling every chapter after a song on that playlist because. This story will be 100% Ben Solo if I ever write about what is going on with Rey/Finn/Poe and their training and New Jedi Order creating with the aid of Luke I'll make a separate fanfic.

I'm hoping further chapters will be longer but this felt like a good stopping point for a first chapter to see if there is any actual interest in something like this.

Also I am looking for an EU savvy beta reader to help me keep my facts straight and not jump the shark by pulling in TOO much EU.

Chapter 1: The Red

Ben Solo had not inherited the mechanical prowess of anyone on both sides of his family. He had however inherited the supernaturally skilled piloting of both sides.

Which was a good thing, he reflected, as he piloted his modified Deep-X Explorer scout ship through an asteroid field he absolutely had not been told was going to be between his hyperspace drop-out point and his actual destination.

His astromech, BD-1, screamed a shrill serious of beeps at him as the former-Sith acolyte turned the ship a full one hundred and eighty degrees on its x-axis to skim between two asteroids that were slowly moving to ram into each other.

"Sorry Beady, no way around that...one?" His apology trailed off as he caught his first glimpse of his destination, the legendary Star Home of the Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium.

"Wizard." There was nothing like a massive floating city in space to make even a thirty-four year old man feel like a giddy child again. He'd missed that feeling. This was the first time he'd felt a kind of innocent excitement since he had touched Vader's helmet the first time and was shown the dread vision that began his final push on his path to the Dark Side all those years ago. A path he now knew Snoke had been pushing him down since he had been born.

In front of his ship a space station that's main body must have been at least 2,500 meters across floated in front of a bright but small blue star. Looking around he noted that the asteroid field he had flown through must have been the remnants of an ancient planet or moon torn apart by the gravitational pull of the blue dwarf star.

Almost as impressive as the size there were four huge pylons protruding like legs from the bottom of the station. The crest of the Hapan royal family was emblazoned on the joints where they met the main body.

A long low trill from BD-1 told him that the little droid was in awe as well.

Both were broken out of it by a crackling from the audio-communicator, "Scout vessel designated Sunrider this is Star Home Command, please verify your identity before approaching. We are expecting a Jedi Knight Ben Solo. If you have any other passengers declare them now."

Ben flinched at the title of Jedi Knight before he leaned forward to press the call button, "Star Home Command this is the Sunrider, I am Ben Solo and I am the only passenger aboard apart from my astromech."

The reply came back swiftly, "Very good. We are sending you the coordinates of the Royal Hangar Bay please proceed and a steward shall show you to your audience first before you are shown to your lodging."

He quickly worked the coordinates into his navicomp and for the ten minutes or so it took his sublights to guide him close enough to switch to manual controls for landing he reflected on how he'd gotten sent on this mission.

After he turned back to the Light and helped his uncle Luke, his cousin Rey, and her...he supposed friends was the best term at the time, Finn and Poe, take out Snoke and the other Knights of Ren he had not felt as if he belonged at the new Jedi Academy they had begun to build on the formerly lost planet, Tython. He knew he had already betrayed his uncle terribly not once, but three times with his faking of Rey's death and his murder of his own father Han. So he had almost ironically become the most public face of the new Order. He took the missions away from Tython the most. He argued for funding in the Senate alongside his mother. He went on the most retrieval missions to bring new force sensitives aid and offer them training on Tython.

And that is in part what this mission was. The Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium had called in the favor with the New Republic after she had provided a small fleet of Hapan Battle Dragons to fight the First Order after the events of Starkiller Base shook the galaxy and made the First Order a threat outside of the New Republic. As the daughter of a Dathomiri witch Tenal Ka Djo had access to the Force. She had asked for both a teacher and bodyguard. The New Republic and Jedi Order assumed this meant there was internal unrest within the Hapes Consortium, as Tenal Ka had not come to Luke's original Jedi academy for training when she could have over a decade previously.

In order to land in the most exclusive of the suite of hangar bays on the space station he had to weave through the long pylons that protruded from the bottom of the main structure to the base of the main hull. It wasn't the Queen Mother's private hangar, but it was one reserved for visiting royalty. After he landed and exited his scout ship he looked around and instantly felt a little uncomfortable.

It certainly was not for the reason one would immediately expect, such as being around a new and foreign culture for the first time. No, Ben was uncomfortable because he felt woefully overdressed and a little self-conscious of his appearance which wasn't something he was used to feeling.

Well in regards to his personal attractiveness, he had worn that mask but only for intimidation and so he wouldn't be recognized as Ben Solo.

The reason for this was due to the fact that the hangar staff was entirely extremely attractive young men with rippling muscles dressed only in skimpy loincloths.

Bodyguard and mentor? Are we sure she's not trying to add me to her harem? This ludicrous thought briefly crossed his mind before he brushed it away at the approach of one of the older, but still younger than him by at least a few years, men.

In Ben's mind the lack of clothing gave the man's words a certain lack of authority and weight, but he supposed they were taken more seriously by visitors that were acclimated to the cultural expectations here.

"Welcome Jedi Knight and Prince of Alderaan Ben Organa-Solo. We have been appraised of and indeed eagerly awaited your arrival. The Queen Mother, Chume Tenal Ka Djo, waits for you within her audience chamber. I am Abdon, one of the head stewards for the Chume. I will escort you to your audience now. If your droid would guide the porters they shall retrieve your luggage and escort it and your droid to your rooms."

Rooms. Plural. Ben had to admit it had been a while since he had gotten the royal treatment. In fact most people even before he had disappeared to the public ignored the royal status his mother's own bequeathed upon him. The last time had been that visit to New Alderaan in the Outer Rim. He could not have been more than five or six at the time. His mother was almost a goddess to the refugees that had settled there.

Quickly he shook off those painful memories of a happier time and centered himself in the Force before following the steward. Beady could handle being led to the rooms, the little droid would be fine.

For all the vicious armament the outside of Star Home showed and for all the starfighters he knew to be in the dozens of other hangers once one began to walk the halls it was quite obviously a base made for pleasure and escape.

A fortress made for the royal family to be safe in unending luxury. He could sense that the steward was taking him on a roundabout path of the halls and courtyards to impress him before he reached the Queen Mother.

And they were impressive, he thought to himself. The courtyards felt almost open air when they past through. Trees, flowers, bushes, and fountains all resplendent in their beauty sat alongside marble pathways leading into the next indoor area or hallway. The hallways themselves were decorated with art from thousands of cultures, though primarily that of the Hapan culture. The theme of the entire station seemed to reflect one of the most basic tendencies of Hapan culture, the near worship of the concept of beauty.

He had read somewhere that the Hapan isolation and pirate roots before the rise of the Queen Mothers had led to a natural selective breeding for beauty. Considering the young men he had seen and past on their path so far he could believe it.

Finally they approached a set of large and ornate doors which swung open before them into the audience chamber. The room was massive, with tables for debates and discussions along the edges, and tapestries and mounted heads of beasts hanging from the walls. They walked up towards the throne on a carpet of the deepest blues and golds with the crest of the royal family embroidered upon it. It was on that crest that they halted and introductions began.

Instead of listening to the steward's introductions Ben studied the regal young woman in front of him. She could not be more than a year his junior from what he remembered of her dossier, but she looked ten years younger with her intricate and beautiful yet fiercely braided red hair, obviously an influence from her mother's Dathomiri culture, and her lavish yet he noted movement friendly robes. However it was her eyes that betrayed her true age. They were hard and fierce and regal, a powerful green that reminded him of his uncle's lightsaber.

And when she spoke her voice was every bit that of a queen, "Jedi Knight Solo, we are glad you arrived with all haste. For you see this situation is more dire than a mere desire to learn the deeper mysteries of the Force." Tenal Ka took a deep breath and folded her hands in front of her as she prepared to admit to something Ben sensed she did not wish to, a weakness of some sort.

"You see, a week before the request was sent to your Senate there was an assassination attempt on our royal person. Hapes hangs on the precipice of a civil war."

Ben's stomach dropped a bit at this pronouncement. There it is, he thought, no matter where I go I cannot escape violence and war and worst of all the pull the Dark Side finds there.


End file.
